Weekend Picks

No. Fest
These days, the North Portland/ St. Johns neighborhood is all over the place. Is it the new gay district? The latest plum to ripen for PDC plucking? The last close-in outpost for blue-collar, and "keeping it real?" In the throes of an all-engrossing identity crisis, NoPo, like any healthy adolescent, wants to party. This weekend marks the first annual No. Fest—boasting an eclectic, ambitious schedule, a compilation CD, and headline Bhangra bangers Anjali & The Incredible Kid. Click here for more info and complete schedule, and behold, below, a preview of Culturephile’s top pick, multimedia music/animation duo, ** Billygoat:

Lake Oswego Festival of The arts
If the above description tempts you to run for the hills, point your warrantied wheels south toward Lake Oswego, for another Festival Of The Arts. They’ve been hosting theirs for 47 years, thank you—so they’re willing to offer some guarantees, including accessibility to everyone, several art exhibits, a Craft Faire, and a juried art show.

Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival
Attending a chamber concert is like taking tea with the Queen—simultaneously intimate and grand; punctuated by quiet throat-clearing. Chamber Music Northwest’s 40th summer festival landed its first bow-strokes this last Monday, but will string the festivities out for four more weeks. Click here for complete schedule and ticket information, and whet your appetite with this Bostonian version of one of the weekend’s featured pieces, Adagio For Strings .

RENT
Whether you measure it in minutes, cups of coffee, or torrid, twentysomething love*—the enduring success and relevance of RENT can hardly be denied. The Pulitzer-winning musical that opened in 1996 and dominated Broadway stages ‘til 2008, styles itself as a vivid snapshot of the edgy lives of seven friends in New York’s East Village. But it clearly offers something more universal: a diverse set of characters and a varied spectrum of passionate, complex emotions. At Theatre! Theater! through july 25th.

*Culturephile wonders, should that be calculated in volume, or density?